IRVAPP SPRING SCHOOL 2010 - Fundamentals and Methods for Impact Evaluation of Public Policies

IRVAPP SPRING SCHOOL 2010 - Fundamentals and Methods for Impact Evaluation of Public Policies

The School is designed to be of particular benefit to PhD students as well as researchers in the Social Sciences, Economics and Statistics, willing to learn how to use micro data to inform policy making. The School will present 1) the fundamental principles of impact evaluation with a specific focus on the counterfactual theory of causal inference and 2) a variety of statistical tools for counterfactual analysis (including difference-in-difference and matching methods, regression discontinuity designs and quasi experimental/natural experiments settings). Extensive laboratory sessions will provide the opportunity to apply the various techniques to specific labour market, education and industrial policies.

The School will run over six consecutive days of theoretical and practical sessions from 1st to 6th March, 2010. Training will require previous knowledge of basic principles for quantitative methods that correspond to those taught in introductory courses of statistics and econometrics at the undergraduate level. At the very least a working knowledge of OLS regression and multivariate analysis is expected. Although the exercises will be guided, basic familiarity with Stata is strongly recommended.
Date:
01/03/2010 to 06/03/2010
Programme:
Instructors:

Nadir Zanini
Istituto per la Ricerca Valutativa sulle Politiche Pubbliche – FBK
Organizers:
Istituto per la Ricerca Valutativa sulle Politiche Pubbliche (IRVAPP)
Trentino School of Management (TSM)
with the patronage of the Centro Interuniversitario di Econometria (CIdE) & of the Associazione Italiana di Econometria (SIdE)
Location:
Panorama Conference Centre – Strada alla Funivia 66 – Sardagna (Trento)
Hot to reach us:
The Panorama Conference Centre is located in Sardagna, a small village 5 km away from the city centre of Trento. The building is situated on a rocky outcrop, at about 560 meters above the sea level, and it is reachable by cableway. The Cableway Station is in “Località ponte San Lorenzo”, 600 meters away from Trento train station (see map) and next to the river. The Conference Centre is located right in front of the cableway exit. The cable car runs every 15 or 30 minutes from 7:00 to 22:30 and the journey takes about 5 minutes. In case of bad weather conditions the cable car doesn’t run and a replacement coach service is available at the same price. The Centre is also reachable by bus and by taxi (+39 0461 930002 or +39 0461 826840).
Tuition fees:
The tuition fees are of €1.200 (VAT included) for PhD students and research assistants, €1.400 (VAT included) for post-docs and €1.600 (VAT included) for lecturers/assistant professors, and researchers from nonacademic institutions. Fees include coffee/tea breaks, lunch and printed course support material. Fees do not include accommodation or dinner.

It will be applied a 20% discount on all the fees, 30% discount for 2 or more Ph.D. students coming from the same institution.
Registrations:
To enroll, interested candidates are invited to email a one page CV together with a one page summary of their Ph.D. programme, subject of their thesis and research interests, to dr. Rossella Bozzon by February 8, 2010. Candidates might be admitted to the course depending on the degree of affinity between the contents of the course and their research interests. The final decision about the list of participants will be made by IRVAPP by February 11, 2010.
Contacts:
infoirvapp@fbk.eu